Here we have the impossible staircase, which violates the laws of physics and makes a mockery of basic common sense by looping back on itself, so that when you climb its steps, you endlessly ascend. These are the stairs that never end, they just go on and on, my friend. Think of the possibilities- like a mouse in a wheel, you can StairMaster up or down forever and never get anywhere.

First envisaged by Lionel and Roger Penrose in 1959 as a “continuous staircase”, and popularized by Escher’s famous lithograph, ‘Ascending and Descending,’ the incredible illusion of these endless stairs has been created in three-dimensional space by architect Rafael Nelson Aboganda at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Is this for real? Watch the clip below, laugh at people’s confusion, and decide for yourself!